Day 46 - Daniel Smith Watercolor 66 Sample Chart

I tried out my Daniel Smith Watercolor 66 Sample Chart today. I bought it at Binders-Atlanta for about $5 last weekend.   First I made samples from the colors. Then I painted three small paintings using it.

River  Bend Summer

This is the first painting I did using the color chart.  I really like the way the Primateks granulated in the trees...A nice effect I think.  I also used Pearlescent white on the tree trunks to give the effect the sycamores give when you look at them.  They seem to glow. To the left of the painting I listed all of the colors I used painting this picture so I wouldn't forget.

Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Try It Color Chart

Primateks, Quinacridones and Cadmiums

The 66 color chart is a great way to try out all the colors without buying the tube. I got mine at Binders for about $5. Primateks are quite expensive. Lapis Lazuli can cost $30 in an art store...$20 on Amazon.

Now I know which Primateks I like and which ones I don't think I want.  What did I like about the Primateks?  I liked the way they granulated and that they were very transparent. Even used in heavy applications they retained their transparency.

I had been really wanting Lapis Lazuli.  Now I don't.  Its neither as bright or dark as I thought it would be.  I do want the greens and two of the other blues - Sodalite, Blue Agatite, Diopside, Jadeite and Serpentine. I have Hematite and Piemonite.

I already own all of the Quinacridones and just love the bright pops of color they give and I have New Gamboge which I use frequently- a perfect color for sycamores this time of the year.

Pearlescent, Iridescents and Duochromes

I love sparkly pearly colors.  These do that so well...but they are best used over another color to shift the color.  I own most of these except for the Duochromes which color shift into two different colors.

Stay tuned for Part 2 Tomorrow...two paintings done with the paints.

Day 32 - You thought I would quit?

Evidently I have more to say and more to paint !! I have been painting the clouds, the trees and the river for a while now.

Kayak Weather

Which is almost any day from April til November on our stretch of the Savannah. If it's sunny someone's going to be out there paddling a kayak.

I decided to paint it vertically in my moleskine and to add a kayaker because I was getting tired of just sky trees and water. I like the way it turned out.

The clouds grey is - you guessed it! Cerulean and yellow ochre. Got a little dark so I lightened it with a wedge of that fabulous Mr Cleab eraser!

Oh here's a TIP :

To make the kayaker stand out after I used that white gelt roll pen to make him  as bright as possible.

I did some negative painting of darker greens around him even though the water was really sparkly around him. He was disappearing into the sparkle so next time remember it's all about contrast!!! You have to make the background darker!!!

 Well that's if you want an object to pop!!

I also think it could use a crop. An inch or so off the top and bottom. That's just me. What do you think?!

Time to paint something else !!

Saturday storm-white caps on the river

Heres the same view NOT an hour later....

and nary a storm cloud in the sky ...isnt weather wild...and all the time the local tv weather guys had all kinds of wild storms passing right over us

hmmm if i could have remembered to hold down the button on the camera this video would have all been in one...this is the same wild storm blowing down the Savannah River that blew thru Atlanta earlier today tearing up Centennial Park, Westin Peachtree and the Equitable Building as well as tearing up a block in Cabbage Town a part of town just east of downtown Atlanta

The local tv channels have been covering this storm for THREE hours now...must have been a REALLY wild one...they are telling everyone to stay home...trees down all over the CSRA, power outages...glad we have the lights on...now where is my greys anatomy cd?!

BTYW did you know that our local Channel 12 WRDW has a service that will let you put your phone number in and they will automatically call you when there is a tornado watch in your area...we would have been called last nite ....we were in the zone...cool huh?

oooh ten days has gone by without a post

ONE OF THE TABLES IN OUR CLASS

my bad...i will try to do better but I have been painting EVERYDAY since i got home from athens...or plastering or repainting...and then there are the curtains i started...and i read HPotter 6 and checking the mailbox shortly to see if the Hedwig the owl delivered HP7 yet...slight snafu at Amazon ...as in i clicked on my old Credit card ## not the new one that replaced it...soooo its not here yet....wahhh.... and i stayed up all nite reading HP 6 so i would be ready to see how it all ends!!

In the meantime I have painted four and 1/2 rooms in our house in the last ten days...i couldnt stand living in the chaos of taking down wallpaper while i was gone...DID I SAY I HATE WALLPAPER...the plaster dust..the mess...YUCK>...now i can paint without getting paint allover me or all over the ceiling or floor...i actually learned to house paint...

ATHENS CLASSMATES

Here are some of the things i learned...well it might be obvious to you but my dad who we all learned to house paint with espoused the slap the paint on the mullions and MAYBE scrape it off later attitude...so what did we know??

• I learned to use a damp rag to clean up as i go ...wrapped around a small putty knife its FABULOUS!!!
• I learned how to keep my brush from dripping everywhere as i painted...duh...you dont use the bucket...you get a wide mouth cup with an inch or so of paint in it...
• I learned how to cut in ...well most of the time...when it didnt work out as planned I had my trusty wet clean up rag...and wet is really better than damp!:>
• I also learned that those silly plastic sheets DONT work very well...the paint falls off them when they are dry....
• OH and i learned that the little rubber maid cups and bowls were perfect for painting...and MUCH cheaper than those fancy things they sell at Lowes ....
• And did you know that light switches in bedrooms have DIRT behind them...now how does that happen??? so did the plugs...
• BLUE tape stinks...it leaves a nasty edge on the paint when you use it on the molding and it also LEAKS....WHO needs that??? and it sticks to you and everything else...I think its much stickier than masking tape...OH and pulls paint off the walls...ask me how i know??!
• 
  
• HMMM I know i learned other things...like its always hot at the ceiling:> but i cant reemmemebrere r what else...

so now for some eye candy:> what you came to see right?

OUR CLASS TABLE CENTERPIECES

When i was in athens i drew during class...i know ...bad right BUT they were reading books to us verbatim...word for word....and fed us like we were feeder pigs going to slaughter...we got really sleepy and really bored...so i started drawing almost everyone in the class that i could see to draw! and here are some of them!

More of my downtown sketch crawl

More sketches from my trip to Athens....which was voted one of the top ten college towns. It has a great area downtown to walk in just jammed pack with great restaurants of all types...

All of these were done in my moleskine with ink and prismacolor pencil

This is the view at nite out my hotel window...oddly there were not many colors at nite...just the street lights and stop lights...and a sign or two that would show in the dark ...I didnt even notice the patrol car or the side street for quite a while....it needs a little more color in it but who knows if or when that will happen...
This is the happening corner in downtown Athens, College and E. Clayton Street...it was not a hot day so alot of people were standing around just talking....the trees have really grown up ....i would have drawn more but a street guy came up and wanted to have a long conversation so off I went to the next spot...moleskine with ink and prismacolor pencils


These are the famous University of Georgia Arches....you are not allowed to walk thru them till you graduate....they are found on Broad Street near where it meets College Street on Old Campus. The University of Georgia is the oldest land grant college in the US dating back to 1793 and some of the buildings on this part of campus are the original ones...back when all this area was in the country...almost frontier....now there are more than 35000 students at UGA...or Georgia as we called it when i went there. not really happy with the grass...scratched some of it off...its too solidly green!:> ..

A trip to athens

The boe sent us to a Georgia Reading first class in Athens GA for four days.....i did my own sketch crawl...and drew ALOT of people...the class was in the Classic Center...I drew these during our lunch break...by the last day we were all so stuffed eating THREE big meals a day plus desert we had almost quit ...they put us up in a really nice hotel...The foundry park inn...expense account dinners...we were living the high life!:> EXCEPT for the getting up at the crack of dawn and sitting in classes ALLLLLL DAY long!

Athens is the home of the University of Georgia(GO DAWGS!) Their mascot is the Bulldog, fondly called Uga. He goes to all the games to be sure that Georgia wins...this is one of the forty bulldogs that are all over the city. This one was in the Classic Center and is covered with the names of plays and musicals... When we got out for breaks or lunch...these steps would fill up with cellphone users and smokers...I was having fun entertaining myself adding alot of odd colors that were not normally in the landscape...this is a long series of steps going down to a plaza area...had a great view!